InGaN-based solar cells: a wide solar spectrum harvesting technology for twenty-first century

Abstract

Now a days solar photovoltaic (PV) is the promising technology to address global issues such as carbon-free electricity, shortage of fossil-fuel, global warming and low cost electricity. This would be successful while the conversion efficiency is improved and new technology is developed. One such technology to achieve over 40% efficiency is to stack III–V compound semiconductors to form multi-junctions. Indium Gallium Nitride (InxGa1−xN) is a highly emerging material with band gap ranging from 0.64 to 3.4 eV which has the ability to absorb nearly whole solar spectrum to increase the conversion efficiency copiously. Since past few years, In x Ga1−x N material has been showing its potential for different optoelectronic and power electronic applications. This motivation is driving immense scientific interest to develop high-performance solar cells using In x Ga1−x N material. This paper highlights the basic advantageous properties of In x Ga1−x N materials, its growth technology and state-of-the-art application towards PV devices. The most important challenges that remain in realizing a high-efficiency In x Ga1−x N PV device are also discussed here. Finally, conclusions are drawn about the potential and future aspects of In x Ga1−x N material system towards terrestrial as well as space photovoltaic applications.